Always
"Always" is the twenty third episode, and the season finale, of the fourth season of Castle. Summary When the murder of an Army veteran puts Beckett on the trail of the man who shot her, Castle must decide how much he's willing to sacrifice to keep her safe. As secrets are revealed and feelings are put on the table, the lives of the detectives at the 12th Precinct may never be the same. Recap The episode opens with Beckett gripping the side of a building for dear life, screaming Castle’s name. But before he (or someone) can reach out to her, her fingers slip... Cut to a caption reading: “Three days prior.” At the loft, Alexis and Castle share a father-daughter moment, where the teen queen opens up about struggling with her graduation speech. Then, in regular Castle fashion, Castle and Beckett hit up the crime scene where they discover the victim, Orlando Costas, was hit in the shoulder before suffering an execution-style kill shot from a .9 mm. Orlando Costas is a former member of the Cazadores street gang turned military man, who was apparently under serious financial pressure. Did he fall into his old ways? Apparently, yes. Costas wasn’t so innocent. Before he died, he broke into Captain Montgomery’s house to steal files from his old work computer. As you may recall (and we’re sure you do), a year ago, we found out our good pal Captain Montgomery was involved in covering up Johanna Beckett’s murder. Although Beckett and the gang promised to keep Monty’s involvement quiet and let him die a hero, it’s clear someone else out there knows. Castle and Beckett are both terrified this case is connected to Beckett’s sniper shooting, too. The next day, Castle shows up at the precinct — Starbucks in hand — when Beckett breaks the bad news: Orlando’s rap sheet shows he wasn’t after Montgomery for his own revenge. Uh-oh! Later, witnesses say they saw a hispanic man with Cazador gang ink fleeing the crime scene. The man, Vicente Delgado, had a cousin who was busted by Montgomery years prior. That’s enough evidence for the NYPD to bust Vicente's home. He has the same gun that killed Orlando, and the team is convinced he forced Orlando to break in to steal Monty’s files, then offed him. Beckett’s in full-on badass mode in interrogation, but unfortch, she’s got the wrong guy. Ballistics comes back showing Vicente didn’t kill Orlando. And this is where it gets juicy, y'all: The guy who killed Orlando is the very same sniper who near-fatally shot Beckett in the chest at Monty’s funeral, one year prior. But of course. Shocked and scared and afraid Gates will remove her from the case, Beckett decides not to tell her icy boss about Monty’s involvement. Castle, on the other hand, tells Kate it might be actually be a good thing to back away from the case. Unfortunately, that doesn’t go over so well with the vindictive vixen. “I’ve been waiting a year for this and I’ll be damned if I let someone else screw it up,” she says. Esposito points out the obvious: Both know Beckett will investigate no matter what. Then, the mysterious Mr. Smith — the man who received Monty’s files in Season 3 — rings Castle and calls the break-in to Monty’s a “clean-up job” to ensure he didn’t have any more incriminating evidence. And it could all be over, Mr. Smith says, if Beckett backs away. Castle says she won’t. “Then we have a problem. If she doesn’t stop, they will retaliate. I can’t control the situation if you can’t control her,” Smith says. Controlling Beckett? Ha! Meanwhile, Beckett visits Vicente in holding. He reveals Orlando came to him desperate for cash. He agreed to meet him, but when he got there he was already dead. Someone else had killed him. Castle and the team think it was someone who knew him from his military days. Turns out, Marisol, Orlando’s girlfriend, knew what was up the whole time — including who Orlando was working for — and cleaned out her bank account. But luckily, the team catches the deceitful diva before she skips town with the leftover moolah. Beckett loses her cool with Marisol, although Castle tries to console her. Marisol reveals she knows Orlando met the man who hired him at a church. So, Castle and Beckett head to said church and check out the security cameras, which shows a close-up of the killer’s face. Could this really be the man who almost killed Beckett? Later, Esposito zooms in on a keychain in the killer’s hand from the video, which leads them to a particular suspect. And then, kids, everything goes haywire. Flustered and excited, Beckett drops by Castle’s apartment with the seemingly good news. But instead of joining her in her frenzy, he calmly tells her she has to stop pursuing the case — or she’s going to die. “I’m fine, I’m in control,” she says, but he replies, “No, you’re not. And if you don’t stop, they will kill you, Kate.” And then, it happens: Castle reveals it all! He confesses that she’s only alive because she backed away from her mother’s case. “And that’s the reason you’re alive, Kate. Because you stopped.” “How do you know this?” she asks. And then, he drops his own bomb, and admits he’s been the one keeping her away. And oh, it gets better (or maybe, um, worse)! After he lays it on the line, the brunette detective is angry, and wants to know why he would lie to her for over a year. And that’s when Castle, after four long seasons, admits, out loud, to her (conscious) face: “Because I love you, but you already know that, don't you?” Oh, burn. We love how he turned that one around! Kate’s shocked. “You’re bringing this up right now?” she asks. Oh, yes, darling, he is. He says after all they’ve been through together, he just couldn’t let the most “remarkable, maddening, challenging, frustrating" person he's ever met lose her life. He says he loves her (again!) and begs her — if she cares about him at all — to stay away from the case. But this is still Kate Beckett we’re talking about, and no little ILY is gonna stop her from something as powerful as her mother’s murder case. Dejectedly, Castle concedes. “It’s your life, you can throw it away if you want … but I’m not going to stick around and watch you do it,” he says. And then, back at the Castle loft, Rick and the soon-to-graduate Alexis share a tender moment about how scary it is to move on — something they clearly both know about. With Castle off the case, Beckett and Esposo decide to pursue the suspect without backup. “I’ve been preparing for this for the last 13 years,” she tells Ryan when he insists they go about things the proper way (aka with backup). Minutes before Alexis’s graduation, Castle gets a call from the 12th precinct that he ignores. It’s not Beckett, it’s Ryan worried for Beckett’s safety. Espo and Beckett break into a suspect’s apartment and find Monty’s files, including a wedding album, leading them to believe that whomever is behind this case was looking for someone Monty knew. But before they can escape with the album, someone attacks her from behind — which turns into a frantic, action-movie caliber chase across the top of a building. On the rooftop, the man tackles Beckett, causing her to lose her weapon. And even though she goes ten kinds of Charlie’s Angels on the unidentified dude, he picks her up and chokes her, smirking the whole time. And eventually, he kicks her so hard she tumbles over the edge of the building, barely able to hold on. As she struggles to pull herself up, Beckett looks down at the terrible fall she might take and it seems the only thing she can think about her is non-partner partner. “Castle,” she whispers. And then, as her sweaty hand finally loses its hold, she screams his name — only to have a male hand grab her own and pull her up. But it’s not Castle, it’s Ryan. And even more upsetting? Captain Gates is there, too. Yup. Ryan spilled the beans, y'all. In an attempt to save his friends, Ryan told Gates everything. Gates tells Espo and Beckett she’s putting them both on administrative leave. "You don’t deserve to be in that uniform,” she says, and tells the twosome to hand over their badges and guns. “Keep it. I resign,” Beckett retorts. Oh no, she didn’t! Did she? As Beckett packs her things, Alexis is giving her graduation speech, which plays over the somber scene. “Everything eventually ends,” Alexis says. Ain't that the truth? Fresh off her resignation, Beckett heads to the swingset in the rain — the one where she had her heart-to-heart with Castle in the Season 4 premiere — where she apparently has a sudden change of heart about Castle’s confession. After the speech, Castle heads back to his huge board of information on Johanna Beckett’s murder and deletes all the information on Beckett’s case. But that’s when he hears a knock: And — ta-da! — it’s Detective Beckett, in all her wet-haired glory. He asks her angrily what she wants, and all she can reply is “you” before passionately grabbing him by the face and giving him the hot (non-decoy!) kiss we’ve all been waiting for. Can we finally breathe now? Maybe? “I’m so sorry, Castle,” she tells him. “He got away and I didn’t care. I almost died and all I could think about was you.” And with that, the two continue to kiss each other, and lock hands as they walk away, presumably to the bedroom. The episode ends on a cliffhanger; the man who almost killed Beckett finds the elusive Mr. Smith, and threatens to put Kate Beckett “in the ground once and for all.” Promo Cast Main Cast *Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle *Stana Katic as Detective Kate Beckett *Jon Huertas as Detective Javier Esposito *Seamus Dever as Detective Kevin Ryan *Tamala R. Jones as Dr. Lanie Parish *Penny Johnson Jerald as Captain Victoria Gates *Molly C. Quinn as Alexis Castle *Susan Sullivan as Martha Rodgers Guest Cast *Tahmoh Penikett as Cole Maddox *Geoff Pierson as Mr. Smith *Judith Scott as Evelyn Montgomery *Onahoua Rodriguez as Marisol Cartagena *Lobo Sebastian as Diego Gutierrez *Sal Lopez as Priest *Riccardo LeBron as Orlando Costas Quotes :Castle (to Beckett in her apartment): Because of everything that we have been through together. Four years, I’ve been right here! Four years just waiting for you to just open your eyes and see that I am right here. And that I’m more than a partner. :Beckett (to Castle): I almost died and all I could think about was you. I just want you. Featured Music *"In My Veins " by Andrew Belle *"All I Could Think About Was﻿ You" by Robert Duncan Trivia *Castle traditionally spends Memorial Day weekend at his house in the Hamptons. This year, Alexis is graduating and Martha is going alone. It's unclear what Castle's original plans were other than to view the John Woo movies; even the WriteRCastle twitter feed had mentioned that he would be going. *'Gaffe': In previous episodes, it was established that Montgomery's children were two daughters. In the family photo shown, though, a daughter and a son are shown. *While Mr. Smith warns Castle to restrain Beckett, no one outside the precinct was aware that she was working the investigation or had connected it to her mother's murder. Combined with Cole's parting line that they "know exactly who they're dealing with," this suggests that there is a mole within the 12th precinct. *Johanna Beckett's tombstone reads, "vincit omnia veritas" ("truth conquers all"). *While Esposito is furious with Ryan for calling in backup, this was precisely what he and Beckett were about to do themselves when they were jumped. *'Watch for': as Beckett walks out after resigning, a sign is clearly visible on the switch behind her which reads, "Turn off the lights". *Alexis is valedictorian of her class. While her valedictory dealt with ends and departures, her decision in Undead Again to go to Columbia suggests that she will remain a main character if there is a fifth Season. *The purpose of the burglary at Captain Montgomery's house was not to remove any lingering evidence, it was to identify "Mr. Smith" so that he could be neutralized and Beckett safely assassinated. Cole's parting line could also be a reference to his mission: to identify the man who's been protecting Beckett. *'Watch for': under the wedding photo that Cole uses to identify Smith is a legal document, a series of witness statements regarding a crime. *Although this episode finally brings Castle and Beckett together romantically, there are two caveats. First, as always, Beckett makes her move only once Castle has totally given up and broken off the relationship. Second, Beckett has still never told him that she loves him. *This is the first episode that Castle and Beckett kiss "for real", not undercover. *Beckett accepts Castles offer to watch movies.....almost like a date! *Beckett's interrogation tactic is the similar to the one used by Agent Fallon. *The argument between Beckett and Castle is similar to the arguement they have in "Knockout". * Again this episode shows the clear divide between Castle and Ryan and Esposito and Beckett as Esposito and Beckett continues to investigate this case when Ryan and Castle thinks its a bad idea. Category:Season 4 episodes Category:Episodes Category:Season 4 Category:Season finale